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SECOND CARD TO THE PUBLIC, 

'P 

BY WM. L. BRENT, 

REPELLING THE ATTACKS OF H. CLAY, 

THROUGH THE LOUISVILLE JOURNAL, HIS ORGAN, 

AND HOLDING HIS (CLAY'S) CHARACTER 
UP TO PUBLIC VIEW, 

AND SHOWING FURTHER AND CONCLUSIVE EVIDENCE 



nr HIS 



PERFIDY AND 31ENDACITY 



AND DENOUNCING HIM 1 THE PUBLIC 



WASHiNGTON: 

riilNTKO AT TUK GI.OI'E OFKICT. 

1 S4L 












O 



CARD. 



Washington Citv, Aug. 30, 1841. 
To THE Editors of the Globe: 

Gentlemen: I am under ihe necessity of asking 
a favor of yon once more. I have been moii 
shamefully aitaclied, as I believe, at the in-^tance 
of H. Clay, through his confidential organ, the 
"Louisville JournA.1." The scurrilous produciion 
has been republished in several papers, and among 
them, much to my astonishment, in the "Richmond 
Whig." I have applied to the Editors of the latter 
paper to do me the jusiice to publish my reply, 
and they have refused ii, unless it wa« "restricted 
within moderate li'inits, and confined to a defence 
of yourself [myself] from the imputations coniain- 
' ed in the article alluJed to." This offer I am not 
disposed to accept. If you will not give the a**- 
companying reply a place in your paper, I shall 
be unable to defend mvself before a generous and 
enlightened public. I hive been much injured; 
and 1 appeal to you to afford me an opportunity to 
protec my-.elfj and to expose the miserable shifts 
resoried to by Mr. Clay atid his hired "writers" to 
cover b\< reireat in the affair wiih, 
Yours, most respecifully, 

WM. L BRENT. 

SECOND CARD. 
The dastardly and libellous atiacks, made upon 
my private character, through the confidential or- 
gans of H. Clay, compel me to appear once more 
before the public. So low and vulgar are those 
attacks, they would be unworthy of Hiy nonce, did 
I not feel satisfied that they were authorized by 
H. Clay, and emanated from his suggestions 
While that individual, affecting a lofty indifference 
to the "brand" whici I have affixed on his fore- 
head, stands mule at the bar of public opinion; he 
has let loose his bloodhounds, in all quaners, to 
prey upon an humble individual, whoke onlr crime 
has been to quarrel with this modern Cse-ar, to 
strip him of his "false plumage," and to exhibit 
him in his true character, to the public. But I 
tell these men of Rhoderic Dhu, that "the quarry 
is al bay," and I do noc mean to be written down, 
or hunted down, by all the .serfs who can be en 
listed under the feudal banner of this faUe chief- 
tain. I tell Mr. Clay, also, that his intimation to 
me, through the "Louisville (Ky.) Journal," his 
organ, to challenge in "mortal combat" "the num- 



berless Whig editors," who offer to take up his 
quairel in the hopes of having me assassinated, by 
some one ot these hirelings, shall not avail him. 
I will notice no one but himself. L't the attacks of 
oihers be what they may, my quarrel is with their 
master; and I will keep that issue before the pub- 
lic, as long as I have life and strength. The ser- 
vile presses, tied to hi^ car, will not do the poor 
justice of publishing my remarks, which they un- 
dertake to criticise. If they are not afraid to let 
their readers hear both sides, why not publish my 
former "card" and the present one? Let the peo- 
ple read them, and decide for themselves. 

Why have certain Whig presses as.«;ailed me in 
this matter, and refused, at ihe same time, to give 
me a chance to be heard? Is it not a personal af- 
fair between H. Clay and myself, with which poli- 
tics have n&ihing to do? Have I not always been 
a firm and undeviaiing Whig, and am I not so at 
this time? Why, then, do any of the presses of my 
own party refuse to do me justice, and to show 
"fair play" in a personal quarrel? Have I not 
'he right to resent an injury from Mr. Clay, and to 
treat him, in a personal matter, as I would treat 
any other man? I had supposed, that in so free 
and enlightened a coun'ry as this-, there was no 
vian that could set h'mself up, or be set up by his 
tools, as privileged above those rules which govern 
all oiher men. Mr Clay's instructions to his 
friends, by the course he is now pursuing, seems 
shortly to be this: "I am your leader — you can't 
do without me, and although 1 may be as black 
as S.n, you must not attempt to whitewash me, 
for you can't do it, but jou must villify all per- 
sons who assail me." I have yet to learn that ihe 
talents of H- Clay are indispensable to this great 
nation — for indispensable they must be, if he can 
reach ihe highest honors, who is covered with de- 
ceit, perfidy, and f.ilsehood, as with a I -prosy. So 
far as I am concerned, I am now willing that he 
should rest upon his mock dignity, and look down 
upon me, if he can, in his lordly and monarchical 
piiie. It is ridiculous in him or his friends to 
say, that I am not his equal. I feel myself, a^ an 
honorable man, far above him, nor can I feel the 
vSiing of contempt from that man, of whom the 
eloquent rnd distinguished Virginian, John Ran- 
dolph, said in public debate, that "contempt has 
the property of descending, but she stops far short 



4 



of him; he dwells beneath her lowest fall An hy- 
perbole for meanness, would be an eclipse for 
Clay." 

As I ha^e neither H. Clay's inflated ideas of his; 
own dijjnity, or his callousness lo accusaiion, I 
feel constrained to notice the base slanders which, 
concocied in Washington, no doubt under his 
eyes, by his servile crew, have been transmitted 
abroad, to appear a>; editorial remarks in hi-^ mf r- 
cenary and subsidised presses. Among those who 
have di.'-tinguihed themselves in ihe low art of 
defamation, and blackguard ^currility lowatds me, 
at the instance, no doubt, of H. Clay, his biogra- 
pher and confidential organ, the editor of the 
"Louisville Journal" stands foremost. From si 
hackneyed and practistd a traducer of character, 
I did not exprci any thing el^e but torrems of vul- 
gar abuse, for danng 1 1 ;is-ail ihe immseulate H. 
Clay, even in a personal affair; and I have noi 
been disappointed. The object of H. Clay, in en 
couragingsuch attacks, is to destroy me and my 
family, if he can, by attacking my private affairs, 
and by assailing my privaie character, a"; reasons 
to justify his course towards me, and artfully to 
draw off' public attention from himself. In this he 
cannot succ-^ed. His arrows fall harmless at my 
feet. His own letter of thr 22d of June last to 
me, Ions after he had been gmliy of what I ch?rged 
him wiih, and after the death of General Harrison 
and the nomination to the Senate of Mr. Fendall, 
gives the lie direct to thr'se newly fabricated rea- 
sons. FiiT, in that letter, he admits the r?.<^pecta- 
bilityof my standing and characier, by sayi'-ig to 
me, that my insu'tin;^ Language should not -'be 
allowed by me [Clay] to brtak off our friend; hp." 
This declarai'ou admits, at least, that he regards 
me (as be could not oiherwi.'e do) in poinf. of 
character, as bis equal, and my friendjh:p as worthy 
of reiaining. When a man fears to do that, in 
an honorable point of view, which he is b'und to 
do, he and his saiilites can easily as.sign reasons, bui 
to honorable men, they will not be satisfactory. If 
my only object was to expose the subterfuge to which 
H. Clay had resorted, to gel out of ihe difficulty 
in which I have placed him, and toclear himsel' from 
the odium now aitached to him as a "dishonored 
man," 1 might sujp here; but as he has dared to 
arraign my ''moral <haracier," and to speak of 
my "private affairs," i hope the pu'-«lic will permit 
me to defend my.seli; and if, in doing so, I shall 
feel myself compelled to a-sail him, he has no one 
to blame but himself. 

So rabid and hytnalikcis the at ack upon ms, 
in seeking to rend me lo pi;'ces, by the publicaiions 
allude! u>, that the vulnerable points in Mr. Clay's 
own character have been entirely forgotten; and I 
have been foolishly assailed as guilty of "vices," 
which, all the world kno^v;, he is vastly more dis- 
tinguished for, than ever I could be, if all were 
admitted which is said against me I am accused 
in the publications alluded to as being guilty of "a 
disregard of public decency," of the most "shame- 
less debaucheries," and of being "lost to.^elf-respect, 
and to every sen^e of paternal duty ! !" Such low 
contemptible scurri'ity is not worth noticing, and 
is an insult to the moral feeling of the public I 
deny the base slanders in every respect; and I cast 
every one of them back upon H. Clay himSelf, to 



whom ihey belong. I most positively assert ihit I 
never was in a brothel, or in a hou^e of a-signa- 
tion since I have resiled in Washington ciiy, or 
elsewhere, in my life: I never was in a gambling 
house, or gambled. I never wa>; accused of being 
H blackleg or roue, I am no drunkard. I have 
never been the cause of any disgraceful nighily 
quarrels in the public streets by abandoned iemale 
characters, and I have never commuted an act 
which Cf)uld siubject me to the charges made so 
unfeelingly against me by Mr. Clay and his 
reptiles. I have been a resident of Washington 
for about ten years, and I may say of the D, strict 
nearly twenty ye^rs, for whilst in Congre.-s, I ge 
nerally renmned here during ihe vvho!e year; and I 
challenge H. Clay to produce oiie solitary indivi- 
dual, who can prove lh*> reverse of these assertions. 
In the community of Washington, there are many 
who know this great moral exemplar, whoi^e nod is 
the law to his iilaves, and "whose chief eunuch has 
been been ordered to strangle me." L'!t his friends 
beware how they tread upon the "moral character" 
of others, or a min-^ may be sprung belore the 
whole country, which will develope another hide- 
ous feature of their prophet, no'v covered by the 
silver veil of credulity and delusion. Before all 
'he world I throw the gauntlet to H. Ciay. and 
challenge a comparison of his "moral characier" 
vwith mine. Put me thou^^h the "fiery ordeal," 
and it will be found, that whilst I do not profess 
to be either a suint or a puritan, my morals, to say 
the least of them, will c impare with his If all 
ihe base slanders were tru'', it does not belong to 
him to throw them up lo me. Is that which is a 
3ri(ne in one man, a virtue in anoiheil Before 
'vlr. C ay permitted his serfs to assail me for the 
want of a proper sense of "paternal duty," h^ 
ought to have reSecied upon his own fense of "pa- 
ternal duty," ah! yes, and his sense of con/i^'a/ 
duty, too. It is degrading lo human natun-,ihat 
he who knows what his ovvn conduct is, should sit 
down quietly, and hear m^ abused by his minions 
on such ground as this. 1 am ashamed lo be com- 
pelled to reply to such charges, bu' I beg a generous 
public to make allowance* lor my excuement at so 
base an ait»fmpi to injure me, and to wound the 
leeliugs of my friends. 

This chargt^ against my moral ch racter ii; only 
carrying out a deep game of "conspi acy" against 
me, coinmencfd ih* raonipnt ii was suspec'ed that 
my old friend. General Harrison, more mindfu' of 
former frien.lshipi than Mr. Clay, might offer the 
office of Attorney of Ibis District to me. Those 
vile and cowardly 'conspirators," sought to im- 
press ihe public mind, through an inymous letter 
writers, with the idea ihat General Harrison was 
prejudiced against me, and would not stop at my 
house on account <f my moral conduct. Tne evi- 
dence of such "conspiracy" is contained ia the 
lollowing extract from a letter of S. S Southworth, 
(the anonymous letter wnter, who first put ih's re- 
port, as to ray moral character, in circuLition in the 
Boston Times,) to a gentleman of the first respec- 
tability in Washington city, who handed it to me, 
to use as I thought pmppr, 

"Hope Island, Narraganset Bay, 

".June 16,1811. 
"My Dear Sir: I received a note from the eiliinr of tlie ''Bos- 
ton Times," (a paper in which a similar publication to the 



one ill the "Louisville Journal" was mailc,) informing ine tliat 
he haj publislied a letier, libellous of Colonel Brent, ilint 1 was 
the author, unA demanding of ine to surreiidfr up my name to 
that gentleman. As soon as I obtained a copy of the ("Tmies,") 
paper, and had read the otTeneive article, 1 discovered that my 
originalh.iii been materially changed in its language, gramiria- 
tic.il construction and bearing; but I never'.heless, at the inaiant, 
aedressed Colonel Brcnl, gave him my name, and denied all de- 
sign to libel him. 

'■'1 know there was a deep laid conspiracy among some of 
the Whigs of, - • • • uud of the ciiy to de.-Jlroy lilm, and I 
am .<?.>r;y to add, thatlfear the conspirators were too success- 
ful. 

"For Colonel Erent I always cherished the most profound 
respect. 

''Not wishing to stand in your estimation as a cowardly and 
base projligate, libeller, I have entered inio these explana- 
tions, audio you I hope they will be satisfactory. 
"Yours, &c. 

"S. S. SOUTHWORTH." 

To what e.^lrcmes will nol mea g ', who .■^fcret- 
ly conspire to injure the character of anoth-r? 
Wnat honest or honorable men can or will be- 
lieve any statf merit, emanating from su;;h conspi- 
rators as these? Yei I am assailed to ptomoe 
Mr. Clay'j- views, by .^uch despicable combina 
tions. 

It is also insinuated, that here in Washington, 
I am not respL-ct^d. Let facts .<peak to this charge. 
When General Hirrison was ab uU being inaugu- 
rated as President of th's United Sia'e^, I wa-- cho- 
sea by a lar^e uiajori'y of the Whig-; of Washuij- 
ton, sele^ied to make the appointment, in opp-vi- 
tion to oihers who were nam°d, a.< tht^ Ciief Mar- 
thai on the 4ih of March last, to presidr; over and 
control the honors paid to our disiinguished favo 
rite on ihU day, and '.!> head, in civic proc-ssion. 
notles; than forty thousand freemen assembled 
upon that occasion. Would I have been so ap- 
pointed, above all oihers, upon so honorable an oc- 
casion, had I not been respected by the people of 
my own city, where I had rtsided so r>ni;? Would 
they hive given me ''the post of honor" (in iha' 
occasion, it I was viewed in the li-^ht Mr. Clay 
now wishes to repre-ent me? Ajain, I call upon 
these slanderers to look at the testimonials of a 
majority of th° Whi^s of the District, now on file 
in the State Department, expressing iheir hiah dm- 
fidence in my character and abilitie*, and exprCfV. 
ing a pleaure at hearing that I had be»n offered 
the place of Attorney of the Dis,!rict by General 
Harribon. 

The Louii;ville Jourf,al cha'ges that my "infa- 
my is wed known at Washinstm." SVhen I 
wo aid ask, was ihis infamy discovered, and when 
did it come to the knowledi^e of the pure ani ttn 
defiled Henri/ Clay'i V. must have come to his 
knjwled^e (if at all) either before or after the 
921 June last, on which day he wrote me a letter, 
declaring me worthy of hi<i friendship . If before 
that dale, then he has debased him>elf m his ntie of 
the 22d June last, by striving to retain the friend- 
ship of an infamous man. If my alledged infamy 
was made known to Henry Clay after the 22 1 June 
last, it is no palliation or protection for his treach- 
erous conduct to me previoits to that dale. I have 
thus shown, by Mr. Clay's rcritten avowal of 
^'friendship" for me on the 221 June last, that he 
either then knew my imputed infamy, and know- 
ing it, wa^ base enongh to rank me as worthy his 
;"/nen«Jsfcip," or that he committed the p'-rfidy and 
violation of his pledge, while he was ignorant of 



aught to render me unworthy of his "Ineadship;"! in his own words: 



fdr it is but a poor subterfuge to justify Clay's 
shameless treachery before 221 June, by a subie- 
quertt discovery that I am infamouv. Ttiis door 
of retreat then is closed upon him, notwithstand- 

n<j thf fflons of his friends lo screen their dis- 
honored chief, and he stands brfore ih** public com- 
vicied I f thf? rankest treachery or of knowingly con- 
sorting with an "iiifamnus" man It Henry Ciay 
jusiifies his silenc'- towards me by an int matioa 
that I am too infamous for his noiice, I pronounce 
him to be a bau slanderer, and if he does no; justify 

toil ih.t ground, I pronounce him to be adailurdty 
craven to cower under iny insults. Let his Inend). 
choose the alternative. 

Mr. Clay,ihrough his presses, is not satisfied wi'h 
an attack npim my "miral characier," but with a 
vie* to rouse my crediturs into ruthle>.s aeiion 
lowardsme, to injure and destroy ray cedi', and 
to ruin me, charges me with being '•insolvent." 
The lime was and wi hia his lecollection, when 
1 wav far from being "in'^olvent" — at a lime when 
a similar charee w.<s unfeelinsly m-ide agaiu.>t him 
iiy his enemies Did I then consider him, (or that 
causf, as beneath my noticti? or did I abandon 
him? Tae recollection of my conduct upon ihav 
occasion, mu t noA? cover his cheeks with shame, 
if ambiuon his not eradicated every honorable 
and g'ateful (eeling- H--ar what he lhiin said. 
I extract his- th^n opinion, from y letier addre*-ed 
by him, lo the public, and which wdl bs found in 
ihe 34ih volume of Nif-^'s Regi^ier, pase 295. 
"VVashinoton. 2.5ih March, 1823. 
"Dear Sir: It isa matter alsu ol rfpiisilaiion to me ioX-/ioic 
that this wanton exjiosure of my private nlTiirs, couM dome 
no pecuniary prejudice. It has indeed \eiilooi\e incident, winch 
was, at the time, a sourse of pleasure and of pain. \ friend 
lately called on me, at the instances of other friends, and in- 
f inned me that they were apprehensive that my private affaira 
were einbiinassed, and thai I allowed this embarrassment to 
l>rey upunmy inind. He came, iherelnre, with tlioir authori- 
ty lo tell me, that they would contribute any sum that I nnsht 
want tore^/ece TOC- Tie emotions which such a proposition 
excited may be conceived by honorable men. I felt most 
hafipy to undeceive them, and to decline their benevolent 
proposition. ' 

'I am, with great respect, 

'11 CLAV." 

Mr. Clay know.s who those friends were who 
in ide him the "benevolent" offer to "relieve" him, 
and who that /ntnd was who called upon him. 
Hecansiv whether I was not one of them, and 
whether I was not the "friend" who, in person, 
called upon him. Some of those g^nllemen now 
live — some have parsed away forever. I will fur- 
ther say, that I have ever po<ses«ed ihe personal 
friendship of them all. Upon this charge I will 
say no more than to add, I do not deny but that, 
in these limes, I am embarrassed; but as to beng 
"insolvent," I am not, and never will be, unless 
Mr. Clay, and his tools, cao exci e my hiiherto 
indulgpnt creditors, to crush me at once against 
iheir own interests. Let the pullic contrast my 
conduct to Mr. Clay, in 1823, with his to me in 
1841. 

The "Louisville Journal" contains another 
statement: "That the Mar.-hil of the District of 
Columbia, on being a^ked whether Brent's (my) 
name would be received on a bond of between o.ie 
and two hundred dollars, replied that it would not 
be taken for a farthing." 

I will give the Marshal's reply to this base lie, 



•'Washington City, D. C. August 16, 1841. 
" Dear Sir: In reply to your noie of thi^i dale, I inform you 
that the only imtance in which yiiur name on any bond, has 
been teniiered me. was in the case of Francis Jolimon, (now 
living ni Louisville, Kentucky,) and 1 ca?in()i tax my memory 
with any such remark as has been ascribed lo me; on Ihe con 
/rary, I referred, as the reason lor declining itto an or<ier of 
court, in wliich, without the sanction of the court, the Marshal 
waa/orAiJ to rec rive the oncers [of whicli number I was] of 
the court as bail. 

"Yours, &c. A. IIUNTER." 

"Col. W.M. L. Brent. 

1 should like lo know who gave the "Louisville 
Jeuraal" this infoimationi I can never be- 
)ieve that he tierived it from the individual whom 
I was di.^posed to serve by becoming his bail and 
preventing his going to jail. 

The sam" publication says: "That upon the < c- 
casion of General Harri.son's arrival ai Washing 
loo, Col. Brent endeavored lo prevail on him to 
attend a dinner party at his house, by way of giving 
himself consequence; and thni certain respectable 
Whigs found it necessary to interfere and thwart 
the petty and paltry scheme, by informing the 
General of Colonel B's infamous character, t? true 
in every particular " I pron unre this to be false, 
and a deliberate lie, in every particular. General 
Harrison disiingui.sh'd me as hi.s fiiend, above all 
oihets, by dininn; loitk r)ie the very first day after 
his arrival in Washinston, m company with the 
most disiingiii>hpd states-men in the country, and 
several of the must resppciable citizens of the Dis- 
trict. Tne public will bp astoni.shed to hear, af^er 
this bold a^seriU'n of Mr. Clay's orijan, that H. 
Clay himself was of the parly. 

Goaded on by a. fiendi;.h malice, and not .«a'is- 
fied with attacking my ''moral character" and my 
priva'e atl'-tirs, I a:n profession illy assailed by 
Mr. ClayV 6/'jo(i/toun(/s. I am charged wiih col 
lecting m:neyfrom a "Typographical Society," 
and of not paying "a dollar of it" to the dav < f 
the acciisaijon. Ths is done to create a piejudice 
a?aiii«t me, with the printers of the coumry. \ 
never coil-eied «n.- cent for anv "Typosrap'.iiral 
Society" but for ih« one in vV^a<-hin2tnn, and I 
paid over every cent I received long before the ac- 
CHsation was mtde. See the following certificate: 

"Having read the charge referred lo, I feel ji my duly, as 
Treasurer of the Columbia Typ.iiraiihical Society, to state, as 
an act of but common justice to Mr Brent, ibat he honorably 
transacted the busines.s which he had ill liaml for the Sucieiy 
and paid th: siine. long since. M. CaTON ' 

August 30, It^U." 

Wot sa'i. fi.'d with all these charges against me, 
my "veracity" is impeached. 1 defy the malignity 
of H Clay and his organs, to prove that in any 
o»i«i7utince, I ever told an untruth I would feel 
humiliated, indeed, if I thought that any respecta- 
ble man Would piat;e my veraci'y upon an equali- 
ty with H. Ciay'.i, alter what I have prjved upon 
htm, and after what I wid now prove upon him, 
uader hi'^ tuvn hand writing. Now, to the prool 
of his having deliberately sia'cd what he knew ai 
the lime w/is not true. In the following note lo 
me, he says: 

Washington City, T). C. 
19 b June, 1811 

"Henry Clay'.s respects in Col. Breni, ind in ipply to his 
note he inlorms liim, iliatdunng- the Presiilryicy of Gcufrul 
JiairiuonUe adoj.'ied the rule of ;(«?j./M'er/(»(c?ice iiuilhcial 
Bppoiiitiiient.'f to which he has adhered generally since the ac- 
ccsdiun ol President '1 ylcr." 

(jdeauiDg that he did not interfere du- 
ring the Presideacy of Geueral Harrison 



J 10 procure the appoittment of Mr. Feudal! as at- 
torney of this District, with which I ciiarged him; 
hut that he did interfire after the death of Gen. 
Harrison, wiih President Tyler, as stated in the 
samp note, which has already been published by 
me) In a letter dated upon the I2ch of May last, 
about a month before he made the positive ."State- 
ment in his note to me that he did not imeriere 
wiih Gen. Harrison in the anpointment, he ex- 
pre.'sly admits the fact, that he did interfere witk 
President Harrison to get the office lor Mr. Fendall, 
intimates that Gen. Harrison had given him rea- 
sons to believe that Fendall would get it; (which I 
positively deny to be trur;) and he concludes by 
saying to Mr Tyler, ihat he then asked the office 
from him, as he had done from President Harrison. 
Put these two letters of his, along side of one ano- 
ther, and what can be thouiiht of the veracity of a 
man who makes such contradictory statements? 
I need not remind him of the legal maxim, as to 
the cridibility of a witness, "Jalsum in uno,falsum 
in omnibus " The letter is now on lile in the 
State Department, where it can bsseen, and where 
I saw it I was refused a c ipy of the letier, as 
the rules of the Department do not allow rf co- 
pies, as Mr. Webster informed me; but Mr. Clay 
can procure one, and let hitn publish it, if he dares. 
President Tyler, and the Hon. Daniel Webster, 
Secretary of State, cmnot aeny this sia'Lemeni in 
regard to a letter which they have both seen. I 
do not pretend to give the exact words of the letter, 
but I give its substance and meaning. 

Again, I am accused of publishing a coniiden- 
tJRl letter of General Harrison, in which he de- 
clares that, "from Mr. Clay he had received only 
ungenerous irfatment in requiial for years 
of devoted service." Indeed I have recently seen 
a Clay paper, in which it is charged that no such 
letter exists, and that it is a forgery. To satufy 
the public of the genuineness of the document, I 
invite all who desire to know the truth, to call up- 
on me and examine the letter lor ihemsslve'^. I 
deny that the letier was "confidential," or that 
Geni ral Harrison made any secret of his opinion 
of Mr. Clay. In giving General Hirnson'i opi- 
ni'not Mr. Clay's ingratitude to him, I only gav« 
the opinion that General Harrison had expressed 
of him, publicly, and upon all occasions, to others. 
I have heard of his ?pe;<king of it on s'eamboats 
and elsewhere. Tne 'L luisville Journal" admits 
It lo have been his opinion, when he says that the 
letter to me "was wriiien at a time when the ve- 
nerable Harrison, almost despaiiing o[ ihe nomi- 
nation, to which he deemed him.^e 1 entitled, was 
known to leel no Utile exasperation towatds Mr. 
Clay " But I deny, (and I call upon all General 
Harrison's old friends in Indiana and Ohio, and 
paniciilarly about Cincinnati, to sustain me in rc- 
(ielli;ig the attack made upon the memory of our 
old friend) that General Harrison's feelings to- 
ward.s Mr. CUty, as expres-ed to me, arose out of 
a rivalship (or the Presidential nomination. They 
originated from various causes, known to his 
iiiends long bffore General Harristn was spoken 
of as a candidaie for ihe Presidency. The impu- 
tation of such a base motive, as that given by Mr. 
Clay's organ to General Harri.son, i% & slander 
upon the magnanimous character of the departed 



hero and statesman. I stigmatize it as a foul 
libel on a man, who was no less remarkable f ( r 
his disregard of self-aggrandisfmcnt, ihan hi,^ com- 
petitor (H. Clay) for the nomination, has proved 
himself seljisk. I call upon ihe friends of Geneial 
Harrison to rebuke this wantrn iraducerof ihi 
"distingvi'shed dead," that hr may fxalt the un 
worthy living. I deny, also, that General Harrison 
evrr charged his private opinion of H. Clay as 
a man. He never retracted his opinion, that 
"from Mr. Clay he had received only vvgenerous 
treatment in requital for yf.-srs of devoted jervice." 
As a political ally of Mr. Clay, General Harrison 
was not incrnsistent in eulogising Mr. ClayV 
cpur.*e in opposing their common adversaiy, and 
.tpcaking of him as a public man, in his pebtic ca- 
pacity. 1/ there beany wto cannot see the d s- 
tinction between General Harrison's opinion o( 
Mr. Clay, as expressed to me and oiher friends, 
and the language used by him, in his public 
speeches, it is«, because they would desecra'e the 
grave of Harrison wiih a charge of duplicity, that 
they may gl< rify H Clay. 

Havirg answered the foul aspersirns made 
against me by some prostituted presses, and fear- 
ing nothing froni their power, as I hope for nothirg 



from the mercy of this "harpy crew," and having 
once more charged home upon H. C'ay, whose 
silence, broken in upon by the howling fierceness 
ol his myrmidons, is as impotent of ime contempt, 
as the defence he has caused to be made for him 
is destitute of prudence. I will remark in conclu- 
sion, that I was fully aware, when I published H. 
Clay as guilty of di-bonorab!e conduct and dupli- 
city towards me, that I should be compelled to 
stand up, single-handed r nd alone, an humble in- 
dividual, ct-ntcndirg with all the perscnai and 
party influence which he could bring to crush me. 
Myr»l;ancj was, and is, on the intclligpnce and 
sense of justice of my fellow-citizens, throughout 
the whol« country, not o( the servile and desperate 
few, whcse (oitunes are embarked in ihe same 
vessfl with ihfir cliief, but in the free, the un- 
bonght feopk, who will give to the poorest, the 
lowest cii zen, as full and impartial a h oaring, as 
to the highest and proudest in the land. 

WM. L. BRENT. 
Washington CiTT, August 30, 1841. 

P. S. I ask all honorable and impartial presJC?, 
of both parties, whi(h have published the base 
libels on me, to give ihis a place. 



89 W 



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